Varadkar calls Britain to make decisive choices

The chances of sealing a deal on the UK withdrawal from the European Union this month are receding, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said, and the EU’s Brexit negotiator called on Britain to make decisive choices.

The UK and the EU agreed to include a guarantee clause — dabbed as a “backstop” — in the Article 50 Agreement. But the EU’s proposal for how the backstop would work essentially means a border between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain. That was unacceptable to Britain.

London made its own proposal to maintain the whole of the UK in a Customs union as a temporary measure. The EU declines to accept it.